Dug-up pavement means disabled pensioner can’t leave home

A mess of construction debris has been sitting outside a retirement home in South Beach for ages, much to the discomfort of residents. Picture: Shelley Kjonstad/African News Agency (ANA)

A mess of construction debris has been sitting outside a retirement home in South Beach for ages, much to the discomfort of residents. Picture: Shelley Kjonstad/African News Agency (ANA)

Published Apr 10, 2021

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Durban - Skateboarders and cyclists race smoothly along Durban’s showpiece beachfront promenade.

One street from South Beach, a pensioner in a wheelchair is unable to manoeuvre herself beyond the entrance of her retirement home to watch the world go by. Much of the pavement is a messy, redundant construction site.

It’s been like that for years, residents of The Association for the Aged’s (Tafta’s) Langeler Towers and John Conradie House, who did not wish to be named, told the Independent on Saturday.

One said: “All this stuff is causing trouble.

“It has been here for a long time. The guys were here working on it and all of a sudden it just stopped. We never saw them again. We don’t know what happened.”

Another called the state of affairs “ridiculous”.

“They started the job and then they left this mess, just like that,” she said, pointing at sacks of rubble.

“The pavement is no longer wide as it should be. There used to be more than enough space.”

She wondered whether the issue might have gone to court.

A third resident said that when wind blows, the sand from the rubble causes the floor inside the home to become slippery.

Adding to the unpleasantness is constant hooting by taxis on Prince Road, including outside the entrance to the home.

Tafta spokeswoman Prevashni Naidu said no residents had addressed the issue of the pavement through the complaints procedure available to them, and there had been no records of people falling because of floors made slippery by dust.

eThekwini Municipality, which owns the pavement, had not responded to requests for comment or information at the time of going to press.

The Independent on Saturday

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